Choosing a stone
For most this would seem like a no brainer, it’s got to be a diamond. I was quite deeply torn though as diamond’s don’t really appeal to me, in fact I find them unappealing on a number of levels. First and foremost they’re a shoddy investment and the businessman in me finds that appalling. They exist in abundance, and prices are kept artificially high be controlling the supply and running the whole industry as a cartel. Many miners also exploit local labour to mine them, meaning not only are they worth very little but they cost almost nothing to procure. Even the history of a “diamond engagement ring” is a marketing fabrication which is less than a century old to help support the aforementioned cartel and prevent the appearance of a large resale market (diamonds are forever after all!). Go see if you’ve got any great grandmothers or great aunts still alive, chances are that even if they did have a diamond in their ring it was set with a garnet, emerald, or sapphire as well.
But this isn’t a business investment at the end of the day, it’s an emotional one. This ring really is meant to stay on Emma’s finger forever, it’s never going to get resold, and the only time anybody else is going to care about the cost is an insurance company if it is stolen. So I can forget any notion of what the material value of the ring is, and with that suddenly diamonds are about as appealing as any other stone.
Actually, they’re more appealing as it’s what most girls like and what they’ll talk to their friends about. So diamond it is then.
